Medicaid

Latest Kaiser Health News Stories

A ballot initiative to fund Medicaid expansion with a tobacco tax failed in Montana on Tuesday. The expansion will expire in the state in June 2019, unless the legislature finds another way to fund it.

In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss the Trump administration’s new birth control coverage rules and the potential impact of the midterm election results on health policy.

Following the vote, nearly 500,000 uninsured adults in five states are poised to gain Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act, say advocates. But many conservatives remain opposed to the expansion.

Even though they are taking control of the House, Democrats will be unlikely to advance many initiatives on health that don’t meet Republican approval since the GOP controls the Senate and the White House. But they can block any efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act or change Medicaid or Medicare.

In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss the start of open enrollment for individual health insurance plans for 2019 and preview what next week’s midterm elections might mean for health policy. Plus, Barbara Feder Ostrov of KHN and California Healthline talks to Julie about the latest NPR-KHN “Bill of the Month” feature.

Idaho is one of four conservative states where voters next month will determine whether to buck the GOP’s resistance to the Affordable Care Act and implement or renew its expansion of Medicaid to adults.

In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Ollstein of Politico discuss a flurry of proposals from the Trump administration on prices Medicare pays for drugs and the Affordable Care Act.

The state-federal health insurance program is more popular than ever. Now, states that want to expand eligibility are devising new strategies to pay for it — creating, in many red states, a significant political challenge.

Insurance companies profit from government contracts but are subject to little oversight of how they spend the money or care for patients. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has only exacerbated the problem.

California’s 13 children’s hospitals are asking voters in November to approve $1.5 billion in bonds to help them pay for construction and equipment, the third such measure in 14 years. Some health care experts and election analysts believe the repeated financial requests aren’t justified.

Although many health policies are set in Washington, states also have a big stake in making sure their residents have access to affordable and effective health care. Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News joins a panel on the 1A radio broadcast looking at recent moves by states on health issues.

Congress approved two bills last month that prohibit provisions keeping pharmacists from telling patients when they can save money by paying the cash price instead of the price negotiated by their insurance plan.